English Rugby Union Championship 2008-09

The 2008-09 season of the English Premiership was the 22nd major league season of the English Rugby Union Championship. For sponsorship reasons it was called the Guinness Premiership . It began on September 6, 2008, comprised 22 game days (one preliminary and one second round) and lasted until April 25, 2009. The four best-placed teams then qualified for the semi-finals Twickenham Stadium on top of each other. The Leicester Tigers were able to win the championship for the eighth time, Bristol Rugby had to relegate.

Guinness Premiership

table

Qualification for semi-finals and participation in the Heineken Cup

Participation in the Heineken Cup

Relegation to National Division One

M: Last year's champion
P: Promotion (promoted) from National Division One

	team	Games	Victories	Unent.	Ndlg.	Game points	Diff.	Bonus points	Table points
01.	Leicester Tigers	22nd	15th	1	6th	582: 401	+ 181	9	71
02.	Harlequins	22nd	14th	1	7th	519: 387	+ 132	8th	66
03.	London Irish	22nd	12	1	9	551: 386	+ 165	16	66
04th	Bath rugby	22nd	13	2	7th	539: 441	+ 98	9	65
05.	Sale Sharks	22nd	13	0	9	447: 410	+ 37	9	60
06th	Gloucester RFC	22nd	12	0	10	435: 448	- 13	9	57
07th	London Wasps (M)	22nd	11	0	11	431: 416	+ 15	9	53
08th.	Northampton Saints (P)	22nd	10	1	11	443: 434	+ 9	7th	49
09.	Saracens	22nd	9	0	13	437: 447	- 10	11	47
10.	Newcastle Falcons	22nd	9	1	12	362: 456	- 94	6th	44
11.	Worcester Warriors	22nd	7th	2	13	348: 530	- 182	2	34
12.	Bristol rugby	22nd	2	1	19th	299: 637	- 338	7th	17th

1. ↑ One point was deducted from the Sale Sharks because the club had used an unregistered player.
   Sharks hit with point deduction. BBC, April 20, 2009, accessed April 26, 2009 . 

The points are distributed as follows:

• 4 points if you win
• 2 points if there is a tie
• 0 points in the event of a loss (before possible bonus points)
• 1 bonus point for four or more attempts , regardless of the final score
• 1 bonus point for a loss of seven or less points

Play-off

Semifinals

May 9, 2009 3:00 p.m.	Leicester Tigers	24:10	Bath rugby	Walkers Stadium , Leicester Spectators: 18,850 Referee: Dave Walker
	Attempts: Hipkiss 17th received Vesty 38th increased Moody 69th increased increases: Dupuy (3) Penalty kicks: Dupuy (1) 51.	(14: 0) report	Attempts: Claassens 46th n.erh. Hooper 57th ad.

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May 9, 2009 5:30 p.m.	Harlequins	0-17	London Irish	The Stoop , London Spectators: 12,638 Referee: Chris White
	Attempts: Simpson-Daniel 57th increments: Lamb (1) Penalty kicks: Lamb (5) 6th, 17th, 29th, 38th, 49th Dropgoals: Walker (1) 76.	(0: 0) report	Attempts: Hudson 52nd increased Catt 75th increased increases: Armitage (2) Penalty kicks: Armitage (1) 43.

final

May 16, 2009 5:30 pm	Leicester Tigers	10: 9	London Irish	Twickenham Stadium , London Spectators: 81,601 Referee: Wayne Barnes
	Attempts: Crane 61. Increments : Dupuy (1) Penalty kicks: Dupuy (1) 17.	(3: 3) report	Penalty kicks: Armitage (2) 49th, 72nd Dropgoals: Hewat (1) 1.

15th Geordan Murphy 14th Scott Hamilton 13 Dan Hipkiss 12 Ayoola Erinle 11 Johne Murphy 10 Sam Vesty 09 Julien Dupuy 08th Jordan Crane 07th Ben Woods 06th Craig Newby 05 Ben Kay 04th Tom Croft 03 Julian White 02 George Chuter 01 Marcos Ayerza Substitute: 16 Benjamin Kayser 17th Dan Cole 18th Louis Deacon 19th Lewis Moody 20th Harry Ellis 21st Matt Smith 22nd Tom Varndell

15th Peter Hewat 14th Adam Thompston 13 Delon Armitage 12 Seilala Mapusua 11 Sailosi Tagicakibau 10 Mike Catt 09 Paul Hodgson 08th Chris Hala'ufia 07th Steffon Armitage 06th Declan Danaher 05 Bob Casey 04th James Hudson 03 Richard Skuse 02 Danie Coetzee 01 Clarke Dermody Substitute: 16 Alex Corbisiero 17th James Buckland 18th Gary Johnson 19th Richard Thorpe 20th Elvis Seveali'i 21st Peter Richards 22nd Tom Homer

statistics

Most attempts made

	Surname	tries	Games	society
1	Joe Maddock	11	19th	Bath
2	Mark Cueto	9	13	Sale
	Paul Diggin	9	15th	Northampton
	Ugo Monye	9	16	Harlequins
	David Lemi	9	20th	Bristol

Most points scored

	Surname	Points	Games	society
1	Glen Jackson	239	21st	Saracens
2	Butch James	212	20th	Bath
3	Charlie Hodgson	187	22nd	Sale
4th	Stephen Myler	158	20th	Northampton
5	Peter Hewat	149	18th	London Irish

National Division One

The season of the second division ( National Division One ) lasted from August 30, 2008 to April 25, 2009 and consisted of 30 game days (one first and one second round). The best-placed team Leeds Carnegie rose to the Premiership. Since the league was reduced to twelve teams in the following season, five instead of two teams relegated to National Division Two ; only one team rose.

table

Promotion to the Premiership

Relegation to National Division Two

P: Promotion (promoted) from National Division Two
R: Relegation (relegated) from the Premiership

	team	Games	Victories	Unent.	Ndlg.	Game points	Diff.	Bonus points	Table points
01.	Leeds Carnegie (R)	30th	28	0	2	1238: 376	+ 862	21st	133
02.	Exeter Chiefs	30th	23	2	5	1077: 453	+ 624	23	119
03.	Bedford Blues	30th	23	0	7th	892: 472	+ 420	19th	111
04th	Nottingham RFC	30th	22nd	0	8th	973: 499	+ 474	20th	106
05.	Doncaster RFC	30th	21st	2	7th	895: 571	+ 324	17th	105
06th	London Welsh	30th	19th	0	11	788: 611	+ 177	17th	93
07th	Cornish Pirates	30th	16	1	13	744: 578	+ 166	16	82
08th.	Moseley RFC	30th	13	0	17th	814: 782	+ 32	21st	73
09.	Coventry RFC	30th	14th	0	16	639: 712	- 73	16	72
10.	Rotherham RUFC	30th	15th	1	14th	794: 777	+ 17	12	70
11.	Plymouth Albion	30th	13	2	15th	607: 669	- 62	10	66
12.	Esher RFC	30th	12	1	17th	676: 830	- 154	11	61
13.	Sedgley Park RUFC	30th	6th	0	24	458: 1206	- 748	10	34
14th	Newbury RFC	30th	4th	2	24	419: 1047	- 628	7th	27
15th	Otley RUFC (P)	30th	3	1	26th	418: 1118	- 700	9	23
16.	Manchester (P)	30th	2	0	28	434: 1165	- 731	9	17th

1. ↑ Two points were deducted from Nottingham for rule violations.
2. ↑ Rothertham was deducted four points for rule violations.

The points are distributed as follows:

• 4 points if you win
• 2 points if there is a tie
• 0 points in the event of a loss (before possible bonus points)
• 1 bonus point for four or more attempts , regardless of the final score
• 1 bonus point if you lose less than seven points

Web links

• Table Guinness Premiership 2008/09
• Table National Division One 2008/09